Minnesota House to return to full strength for first time since lawmaker’s assassination
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota House will soon return to full strength under an unusual power-sharing agreement that forces both parties to work together, following a special election to fill the seat left vacant when the chamber’s top Democrat was assassinated.
Democrat Xp Lee won Tuesday’s special election with 61% of the vote, according to unofficial results. After the results are certified and he’s sworn in, he’ll fill the seat that was held by state Rep. Melissa Hortman until she and her husband were killed in their Brooklyn Park home in June by a man disguised as a police officer.
The special election came days after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, in the latest spasm of political violence in the U.S.
Here’s a look at what to know about Lee and what’s next for the Legislature.
Who is Xp Lee?
He pronounces his name X-P, just like JD as in JD Vance. It’s short for Xiongpao.
The former Brooklyn Park City Council member belongs to Minnesota’s large Hmong American community, and he will become one of several Hmong legislators at the Capitol. His parents fled Laos and he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. He grew up in Fresno, California. He now works as a health equity analyst for the Minnesota Department of Health.
Lee’s Republican opponent in the heavily Democratic suburban district northwest of Minneapolis was real estate agent Ruth Bittner.
He’ll join a closely divided Legislature
Lee’s win preserves a power-sharing arrangement that existed for most of the 2025 legislative session, after the 2024 elections cost House Democrats their majority and left the chamber tied 67-67.
Hortman brokered that agreement. She agreed to give up her position as speaker and handed her gavel to Republican leader Lisa Demuth, who will continue to serve as speaker through the 2026 legislative session. After a rocky start and some bitter debates along the way, lawmakers accomplished the main task of the session by passing a balanced two-year budget.
The tie in the House — and the one-vote Democratic majority in the Minnesota Senate — means some level of bipartisan agreement is required to pass anything. Two Senate seats are currently vacant, adding another complication.
Minnesota isn’t finished with special elections
Special elections will also be held Nov. 4 in to fill those two state Senate seats.
One is for the seat vacated by Democratic state Sen. Nicole Mitchell, of the St. Paul suburb of Woodbury. She resigned in July after she was convicted of burglarizing her estranged stepmother’s home. The other is for the seat held by Republican state Sen. Bruce Anderson, of the Minneapolis exurb of Buffalo, who died in July.
Given that the two districts are heavily Democratic and heavily Republican, respectively, control isn’t expected to change. But the Democrat seeking Mitchell’s seat is state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, of Woodbury. If she wins, the governor would have to call another special election to fill her House seat.
The governor wants to call a special session
The Legislature isn’t due to reconvene until Feb. 17. But Democratic Gov. Tim Walz — who announced Tuesday that he’s running for reelection to a third four-year term — wants to call a special session to address school security and gun violence. He raised the idea following a shooting at a church last month that killed two children and wounded 21 other people.
But Walz hasn’t set a date and hasn’t produced a formal slate of proposals, though he reiterated his support for an assault weapons ban as he launched his reelection campaign.
Given the close partisan divisions in each chamber, it’s unclear what, if anything, lawmakers could pass during a special session to address gun violence or school security.
The added complication in the Senate is that its rules require at least 34 votes to pass most bills. So until the chamber returns to full strength after the next special elections — and an expected 34-33 Democratic majority — nothing could pass in a special session without bipartisan support.
One of the Senate’s leading advocates of gun safety legislation is Ron Latz, the Democratic chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. He convened an ad hoc gun violence prevention working group after the church shootings in the hopes of reaching some consensus.
But a pair of contentious meetings this week showed that there’s little to no GOP support for new gun restrictions.
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press
